"Life is a struggle, but not a warfare"
About this Quote
Burroughs draws a line that feels almost pedantic until you notice how much cultural heat it drains from the room. Calling life a “struggle” concedes friction, scarcity, fatigue - the daily push against weather, money, grief, ego. But refusing “warfare” rejects the seductive story that we are besieged, that existence is a zero-sum battlefield stocked with enemies and victories. The sentence is a pressure valve for an anxious age: it tells you to take hardship seriously without turning it into a crusade.
The word choice matters. “Struggle” implies effort and persistence; it’s intimate, granular, often quiet. “Warfare” implies strategy, domination, collateral damage, the moral permission slip that comes with declaring an opponent. Burroughs, a naturalist and essayist steeped in the rhythms of landscapes rather than the melodrama of conquest, is gently arguing for proportion. Nature, in his view, is not a cosmic grudge match; it’s a system of constraints that organisms navigate. Hard, yes. Personal, yes. Apocalyptic, no.
The subtext is also a critique of the American temperament that loves to militarize everything: politics as combat, work as “the grind,” self-improvement as “hustle,” illness as “a battle.” Burroughs is warning that war metaphors don’t just describe experience; they recruit you into it, training you to see other people - and parts of yourself - as threats. Struggle keeps your hands on the oar. Warfare makes you reach for a weapon.
The word choice matters. “Struggle” implies effort and persistence; it’s intimate, granular, often quiet. “Warfare” implies strategy, domination, collateral damage, the moral permission slip that comes with declaring an opponent. Burroughs, a naturalist and essayist steeped in the rhythms of landscapes rather than the melodrama of conquest, is gently arguing for proportion. Nature, in his view, is not a cosmic grudge match; it’s a system of constraints that organisms navigate. Hard, yes. Personal, yes. Apocalyptic, no.
The subtext is also a critique of the American temperament that loves to militarize everything: politics as combat, work as “the grind,” self-improvement as “hustle,” illness as “a battle.” Burroughs is warning that war metaphors don’t just describe experience; they recruit you into it, training you to see other people - and parts of yourself - as threats. Struggle keeps your hands on the oar. Warfare makes you reach for a weapon.
Quote Details
| Topic | Life |
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